Elijah M. McDougald

Professor Elysha O’Brien

English 101

19 February 2023

Interstellar Impact on Climate Change

Although the film "Interstellar" by Christopher Nolan depicts the tale of an Astronaut turned Farmer who finds himself on a galactic expedition amongst the stars. Interstellar is about climate change. The film projects a future where rising nitrogen levels in the atmosphere promote severe blight, extinction of multiple crops, and critically harmful dust storms that plague the lands.

 Brothers Christopher and Jonathan Nolan rendered a visual masterpiece that follows Astronaut Cooper. Due to a global rise in nitrogen, bacterial blight was thriving, causing a mass extinction of crops alongside extreme weather in 2067. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) was shut down some years ago, by the government. Thus, leaving Cooper a Farmer. With the help of his daughter, Murph, several gravitational anomalies were observed on the farm. These anomalies were tracked by the duo, which lead Cooper to NASA’s doorstep. He learns about the potential fate of the world and reluctantly elects to help NASA search for a new planet, a new home. This is the story of the immensely popular Interstellar.

Over the last several million years here on Earth, global temperatures have risen and fallen repeatedly. Earth is always undergoing metamorphosis during its existence in the solar system. The most well-known way for global temperatures to change is the concentration of Carbon Dioxide (CO2) in the atmosphere. As CO2 levels increase, the planet warms, and this phenomenon is often called The Greenhouse Effect (United Nations). Many scientists suspect that this is the reason planet Venus embodies desolation, a runaway greenhouse effect. When CO2 levels decrease however, temperatures also decrease. Another lesser talked about cause of climate change is the level of nitrogen in the atmosphere. Human industrialization has significantly sped up the natural cycle of the global climate. The rapidly elevating levels of CO2 and nitrogen in the atmosphere have damning impacts on life here on earth.

The rise of nitrogen is a critical event in Interstellar. It without a doubt drives the plot. In an exchange between Cooper and Michael Caine's character in the film, Professor Brand, Head of NASA, Professor Brand explains that,

Our atmosphere is 80 percent nitrogen. We don't even breathe nitrogen. Blight does, and as it thrives, our air gets less and less oxygen. The last people to starve, will be the first to suffocate. And your daughter's generation will be the last to survive on Earth. (Nolan)

Professor Brand emphasizes one very key detail, the percentages of nitrogen in the air. Currently, Earth's atmosphere is 78% nitrogen and 21% Oxygen (National Aeronautical and Space Agency). These conditions are adequate for human survival. In the film, the percentage of nitrogen is only two percent higher than it is today, and the year 2067 is less than 25 years away. This leaves a significant amount of time to match the 80% as observed in the film. And this can lead to certain dangers. Though this is indeed a film, it is extremely plausible to have a nitrogen rich atmosphere that could bring an untimely demise to humanity by allowing blight to become rampant because of climate change.

With such a large population on planet Earth it is no secret that for humans to continue to thrive, food is essential to sustain and support them. A major source of food for humans is harvested through crops. In the film, crops are going extinct because of blight. Professor Brand states, “Blight. Wheat, seven years ago. Okra, this year. Now, there’s just corn. ...But like the potatoes in Ireland and the wheat in the dust bowl, the corn will die. Soon” (Nolan). Without enough food, people will go through a famine and across the globe, the total population will subsequently greatly reduce. The lack of people living in the town and working at NASA headquarters, in the film, portrays a critically low population on Earth. This demonstrates how Interstellar incorporates modern science and decades of collected data to construct a plausible fictitious film.

Consequently, as the crops go extinct, the land, the soil that once grew those crops becomes barren. Like sand, soil that is dry and loosely sitting atop the ground is easily kicked up into the air by fierce winds. These are known as dust storms. In Interstellar the surviving population must adapt to such storms as best as possible. While at a baseball game Cooper and his family see in the distance a billowing dust cloud rampaging towards the field. An alarm sounds and the entire town starts evacuating the outdoors for shelter to wait out the storm. Later in the film, respiratory illness is also the cause of some deaths and complications. It is evident that these dust storms are severe and pose an extreme hazard because of rising nitrogen concentration in the atmosphere and near total crop extinction.

        The Nolan brothers certainly did an excellent job of portraying real, factual science in an adventurous film. Aside from all the intergalactic travel and discovery of new sciences and other worlds, the depiction of climate change was keen. Nitrogen levels, crop extinction, and dust storms are subjects that are not often mentioned in most climate change conversations. In an incredibly brilliant fashion Interstellar adds prescience and urgency to climate change, enough so to get its viewers pondering Earth’s very own future.

Works Cited

National Aeronautical and Space Agency. The Atmosphere: Getting a Handle on Carbon Dioxide. 9 October 2019. <https://climate.nasa.gov/news/2915/the-atmosphere-getting-a-handle-on-carbon-dioxide/#:~:text=By%20volume%2C%20the%20dry%20air,methane%2C%20nitrous%20oxide%20and%20ozone.>. Accessed 20 February 2023.

Nolan, Christopher, director. "Interstellar." Paramount Pictures. 2014.

United Nations. What Is Climate Change? 2020. <https://www.un.org/en/climatechange/what-is-climate-change>. Accessed 20 February 2023.